


The Familiar

by Simon_Northcote



Series: Zutaraang Week [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Kissing, M/M, Making Out, Modern AU, Multi, OT3, Other, Polyamory, Secret Relationship, Zutaraang, Zutaraang Week, zutaraangweek2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-29
Updated: 2019-10-29
Packaged: 2021-01-08 06:07:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21231035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Simon_Northcote/pseuds/Simon_Northcote
Summary: "How could they show him he was loved when they could only touch him, kiss him, hold him once every a couple weeks? Was this the price of safety?"Aang and Katara wish they didn't have to keep their relationship with Zuko a secret.





	The Familiar

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this super short thing SUPER QUICK for the Zutaraang Week prompt of today, Modern AU. Now, I'm not a fan of Modern AUs. They're not bad it's just not my cup of tea. My motto is "It could always have more dragons". But I *really* wanted to post something with this concept and I wanted to post something for Zutaraang Week so here it is! I hope it's good!

_“For our love is a ghost that the others can't see_  
_It's a danger_  
_ Every shade of us you fade down to keep_  
_ them in the dark on who we are_  
_ (Oh what you do to me)_  
_ This love is gonna be the death of me_  
_ It's a danger_  
_ 'Cause our love is a ghost that the others can't see”_

–“[The Familiar](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32kYH6XZrIo)”, by Agnes Obel.

失恋

Aang and Katara were talking about something by her locker. Aang was still wearing that old yellow beanie with the blue arrow on it, and Katara, as always, was wearing her mother’s necklace. They were laughing and smiling, and Zuko felt a pang of bitter jealously. He knew he wasn’t supposed to be jealous, but he couldn’t help it. He couldn’t talk to them in public. Not even when the six members of the gang were together for lunch or messing around after school. He couldn’t touch them, he couldn’t hold them, he couldn’t kiss them. He couldn’t look at them.

He still looked at them, though. From afar, where it was easier for them to pretend they didn’t know he was looking at them.

For a moment, they locked eyes with him, and his heart gave a leap. He quickly looked away and opened his locker, as if trying to hide behind the door. But he couldn’t help but glance at them from the corner of his eye.

A flicker of sadness crossed their eyes. They weren’t laughing anymore, and their smiles looked plastic and forced. None of the three were good liars.

Aang took Katara’s hand and told her something that made her laugh, even if her laugh didn’t sound as sincere as before. They walked away without even acknowledging Zuko.

He blinked away the tears.

失恋

Katara pressed her lips against his so gently it made him forget the pain.

Their lips parted. Zuko sighed, and she immediately crashed her lips into his again. She held his face with both hands and wasn’t letting go. He wouldn’t have it any other way. He suddenly felt her tongue brush against his bottom lip, and he nervously opened his mouth to let her in. They’d never done this. He wondered if she’d done it with Aang. They _did_ get to spend far more time together.

He wasn’t jealous, no. He didn’t feel lonely.

The kiss was so deep it took all the air out of his lungs, and once they pulled away, he barely had time to recover before Aang cupped his face to kiss him too.

Aang’s kisses were so different from Katara’s. Not better or worse, just different. While Katara was calm and slow and passionate, Aang always seemed desperate, kissing quickly like he was making up for something. He held the back of his neck, and then tangled his fingers in his hair in a way that made him shiver.

‘You’re mine’, the touch meant. ‘You belong by my side. I’m sorry I made you feel like you didn’t’.

Zuko gripped his shirt, not quite daring to touch him.

Aang placed many quick, shallow kisses on Zuko’s lips, each one feeling like falling and flying at the same time. And then he tried to go deeper and do what Katara had done. Zuko could feel him shiver out of nervousness as he slipped his tongue between his lips, and that only made him blush deeper, his heart accelerating. He could almost feel Aang’s rapid heartbeat against his own chest.

Once they pulled away, Zuko took in a deep breath, and Aang immediately pulled him into a hug. He held his head against his shoulder and let Zuko bury his face in the crook of his neck. He heard shifting and then felt Katara’s arms around his waist.

“I missed you” Aang said as he stroked his hair. The touch was so gentle and genuine… He wasn’t used to these kinds of touches. It had taken him a long time to relax whenever he felt their hands on him. Now he felt like he could be lulled to sleep simply by having his hair petted.

He closed his eyes. Katara’s arms tightened around him.

“We both missed you” She whispered on his ear. “I’m sorry we couldn’t make much time for you lately”

He took her hand in his, lacing their fingers together. This was enough. More than enough. The privilege of loving them was enough.

“I know you’re busy with school” He said, not quite knowing who he was talking to. It was the automatic explanation. They’re busy with school. School is the most important thing there is. He understands. He’s not hurt. He was busy with school, too, applying for colleges and studying for exams.

_(They always had time for each other _inside_ school, though). _

Katara pulled them both to lie on the bed. They were staying the night at Aang’s house, because in Katara’s house they risked being interrupted by Sokka and Zuko’s family was the whole reason why they had found themselves in this complicated, uncomfortable, painful arrangement.

Aang’s guardian, Gyatso, was the only other person in the house and he didn’t spend a lot of time in the house. He gave Aang a lot of freedom and didn’t try to get involved in matters that didn’t concern him. He was also the only one who knew about their relationship and he never seemed to see it as anything other than loving and normal.

So most of their encounters where in the safety of Aang’s house, where no one else could see them.

Zuko lay in the middle, with Katara and Aang at either side of him. He was holding his hand tightly and she was stroking his hair slowly with her right hand, her left arm wrapped around his waist.

_(He loved it so much when they touched his hair. Don’t stop, please, don’t stop…)_

He was suddenly aware of how much attention they were putting on him, and that made him uncomfortable. _They_ were supposed to be the _real_ couple. Zuko was little more than a glorified guest. An afterthought.

“Why are you doing this?” He forced himself to ask. He didn’t want to talk. He wanted to hold their hands and fall asleep between them, but the sense of wrongness was too strong.

“What do you mean?” Aang asked, scooting closer to him.

Zuko took in a deep breath.

“Nothing”

Katara sat up.

“I wish we didn’t have to hide you like this” She said, as if reading his mind and knowing exactly what he needed to hear. “I hate this”

“Me too” Aang nodded. He turned to Zuko “It’s not the same without you”

Zuko was invaded by a rush of adoration for them. He loved them _so much_.

He tended to forget this hurt them as much as it hurt him.

He tended to forget they loved him, too. And it wasn’t their fault, no, not at all! They made sure to remind him that they loved him whenever they could, through texts, through notes in his locker, through quick, discreet glances in the school hall and hands that brushed for a way too short second. It was all they could allow themselves when they were in public, where everyone could see them and where rumors could travel quickly to his sister’s ears. Or worse: to his father’s.

No one kept relationships a secret for fun. It wasn’t fun. It was painful and heart-wrenching. It was like being constantly told he was _less_. _Less_ of a member of the relationship, _less_ important, _less_ loved.

Aang and Katara knew this, and whenever Zuko expressed feeling like this, they became frantic and desperate. This wasn’t what they wanted. They wanted to keep him _safe_. If a word out of place at thirteen had gotten him his father’s hand pressing his face against the stove and scarring him for life, then who knew what he could do to him if he knew he was going against everything he had ever told him only for them?

They didn’t want him to think he was less.

How could they show him he was loved when they could only touch him, kiss him, hold him once every a couple weeks? Was this the price of safety?

Katara lay back down and rested her head on Zuko’s chest to hear his heartbeat. It was quick and nervous and the sound made her feel like someone was squeezing her heart. She loved him so much. She hurt so much watching him hurt.

He wrapped an arm around her waist to hold her closer.

“Thank you” He whispered in her hair. She held his shirt in her fist possessively. She didn’t want to ever let him go. He’d gone through so much pain already, and with a family like his…

He deserved more love. She feared than the love she and Aang were giving him wasn’t enough. They could barely see him. He had to cry himself to sleep whenever things got bad with his father or his sister and they couldn’t be there to comfort him. He deserved to be loved and to have this love be shown with pride. He deserved to be seen with his partners, as if they were saying _‘this is Zuko. He’s brave and smart and awkward and compassionate and wonderful and he deserves all the love in the world’_.

But they couldn’t do that. His sister would find out. And if his sister found out, that meant his father found out, or Azula would use this information as blackmail to ruin his life in some horrible way.

Katara just wanted to get him _the hell out of there_ and into a nice house in another city, where the three of them could live proudly together and he didn’t have to be scared.

She wanted to hold his hand in public. But if she couldn’t do it, then she would have to make do with holding him in private.

She intertwined their fingers together.

She locked eyes with Aang and knew they were thinking the same.

Aang thought Zuko was incredible. He used to give him hell just two years before, but he soon apologized and Aang was happy to give him a second chance. Zuko never wasted a chance to show him he’d changed, and that he was good, or that at least he wanted to be. Aang had never seen a transformation like that before, and seeing how hard Zuko strived to be better made him so proud, and this pride soon turned into love.

Couldn’t his father see what a wonderful person he was? Why did his transformation earn everyone’s love but his own family’s?

In fact, it looked like his family had more contempt for him now than they did before.

And Aang didn’t understand it! What kind of people could be so cruel?

Zuko cranked his neck to look at Aang and he was met by his glaring scar. Every time he saw it, it felt like getting the air kicked out of your lungs.

What kind of father would hate their child so much they would press their head to the stove?

Aang wanted nothing but to keep him safe, so he sat up and started kissing him again.

He was desperate to show him that he loved him as much as he loved Katara. They were all together— the _three_ of them, and if it weren’t for Zuko’s family he would be _proud_ to let the world know he was his boyfriend.

His kisses were short and quick and desperate, and he took a moment to place a kiss on his cheek, over his scar. He stopped there for a moment when he heard Zuko let out a quivering breath. He pulled back.

“Does this make you uncomfortable?” Aang asked. He really should have asked before touching his scar.

Zuko shook his head.

“If I’m okay with anyone touching it” He said, looking at both Aang and Katara. “It’s you two”

His words filled Aang’s heart with warmth. He leaned in to place a light kiss on his disfigured closed eyelid.

“I hate that they did this to you” He said. Katara tugged at his sleeve, as if telling him to stop talking.

Zuko opened his eyes. He didn’t seem to know what to say. It was an uncomfortable silence that Aang was desperate to get out of.

He got an idea:

“Once I graduate” he said. “We’re all moving out together to a different country. Just the three of us”

Zuko chuckled.

“We still have to wait three years for that”

“Okay” Aang said. “You can go get the house ready and we’ll join you when we graduate” He looked at his girlfriend. “Right, Katara?”

She nodded enthusiastically.

“We need to find a place big enough for Appa” She reminded him. Aang’s white Tibetan mastiff was known for disliking small spaces.

“We can do that!”

“What about the gang?” Zuko asked. “We can’t just abandon them”

“They can come with us!” Aang exclaimed. “But they wouldn’t be living in the same apartment as us”

“Good luck convincing Toph to move into an apartment building” Zuko joked. “With all those rules”

“We can get Toph a house of her own”

“‘We’?” Katara snickered. “I think Toph’s rich enough to buy her own house”

“Ugh! Okay! We’ll have Toph buy her house close to our apartment. Sokka and Suki can live next door, and the three of us will have a whole apartment all for ourselves”

Zuko smiled. Aang realized Katara was petting his hair again, holding a strand and stretching it between her thumb and forefinger, all the way from the roots to the tips, when she let it fall and started again. It was almost hypnotic.

“I’d… really like that” Zuko said. Aang loved to see him with a smile. He _really_ loved him.

He leaned in to kiss him one more time. He started with several frantic kisses, but then Zuko cupped the back of his neck in that way that made him melt and held him there, kissing him slowly, just cupping his bottom lip between his own lips and moving agonizingly slow. Aang was conscious of the way his heart hard hammered against his ribcage.

Zuko was leading the kiss now, sliding his tongue inside his mouth. Aang’s heart gave a leap. He wanted to kiss him quickly, but by the way he was holding him he knew Zuko wanted to kiss him slow, and that was somehow much more intimate. Their lips brushed together smoothly despite Aang’s urgency. They parted to breathe, and Aang took the chance to fix his yellow beanie. Zuko’s hand on the back of his head risked taking it off on accident. When he looked at Zuko, he saw the tears running down his face. He brushed away the one falling from his right eye, and Katara’s thumb gently ran over the scarred skin on the left side of his face to wipe away the tears.

He looked up at her, like he was looking at the moon (_he was,_ Aang thought). She placed a kiss on his forehead, on his tears, on his lips. He didn’t hold her like he held Aang, because he knew who was in control, and instead he let Katara hold the back of his head and lead the kiss.

Watching them together always made Aang blush. The two people he loved the most in the world loved each other, and that made him incredibly happy. He was so glad he could be with both of them.

Once they pulled away, Zuko hid his face in Katara’s shoulder. Aang didn’t hesitate to wrap his arms around his waist. He liked holding him like that. He knew ever since they started dating that Zuko would be the little spoon.

He smiled. He loved him. He loved them both.

How could you love someone so much?

It was late, and they soon started to drift to sleep. I fact, he was sure Zuko was already asleep when he heard him whisper.

“I can’t wait until we have that apartment”

Aang pressed his forehead against his shoulder blade. He saw Katara’s grip on his hair tighten.

They couldn’t wait either.

Zuko knew how hard the following years would be, with college and his father’s pressure over him, but as long as he had his two lovers by his side, he could allow himself to have hope.

One day, they would have the warmest, most welcoming apartment in the world, and he wouldn’t have to be afraid.

One day. Until then, this could be enough.

**Author's Note:**

> (I didn't want to write this because I wanted to work on the thing I'm making for the Element Swap prompt, which is my favorite one and I'm already like 100 pages into it, but I don't think I'll get to finish it all by Friday. I'll just divide it into chapters instead of making a super long One-Shot like I was planning and post Chapter One on Friday. I can't wait to show you what I've been working on! The Element Swap one... that one is my true masterpiece)


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